DIY Breadboard, is it worth the trouble?

[joost]

I am slowly cobbling together my setup, just purchased a 532/100mW and now needing a breadboard. Not being a person of infinite wealth (who is? , I attempted to purchase one from eBay that looked good but was a bit too pricy for my taste. A 2x5 feet board for 900 bucks and adding 200bucks or so shipping costs on top, seemed too much for me.

Naturally, my thoughts are going on doing a DIY. A slab of aluminum sets me back 350 or so (3/16 thick). Drilling holes and tapping these will be a bit of time and requires some accuracy but this can be done - I have just about all the tools for this. However, reading up on the official boards (such as from Newport) they all have a nice honeycomb lattice network on the bottom to combat end to end vibrations and stresses - thats not something I could do.

In the end, do you think it is worth it for a starter to go through the trouble of making a breadboard or is it better to go for a fabricated one right away? If the latter, any particular brand recommendations?

joost

[142laser]

If you want an optical table style bench go with a commercial one; you can use magnetic mounts on them but not on aluminum. Also table movement is really bad for fringe stability so 3/16" thick AL is not good. Look for a good deal on e Bay! The vibration isolation scheme is just as important; small inner tubes have been used forever. More experienced holographers here please help me with more specific suggestions. Who had tried multiple large diameter Sorbothane feed? Like a high tech inner tube?

[joost]

Hmm, I was afraid that would be the response. Anyway, I went to see an metals vendor and did a bit of checking and talking about the stuff they are able to provide. Just about all the plates show some bend (however slight) and would need a professional finish to straighten things out. Before you know it, it costs just about the same as a board from eBay... Sooh, will go the more professional route as you recommended...

[Joe Farina]

Unless there is a special reason why you definitely need a breadboard, I would look into another type of table construction, especially if you are a beginner. Breadboards look nice, but they can be expensive, and suggest that your mounts/holders/other equipment will also be professional, and that could get really, really expensive. I would say that relatively few "home" holographers use professional tables, or even breadboards.

The important thing is to determine the type of holograms you want to produce, the recording material to be used, (you already mentioned the 100mW 532nm laser -- I just hope it's a 315 or equivalent!), and most importantly, the size of holograms to be made. Focus on the things you want to accomplish, and then eliminate all the other holographic "possibilities." That's one of the major lessons I've learned in 25 years in holography. The design of the table will follow your needs.

There are many books on holographic table construction.

[John Klayer]

I built several tables over the years. The last one built in 2005 from empty soda cans and steel plates. Some of the pictures are in the archive and some are lost (Nov 21, 2005). It took months and it was a real pain in the neck.

[Ed Wesly]

If you are mainly interested in Single Beam Reflection, then what I recommend is that you and build a Big Beam! You don’t need a table, just an optical rail for SBR work!

Here is my Big Beam in my basement darkroom: (Double-clicking on the images make them larger.)

Ooops! Forgot to take the Styrofoam covers off! (Later painted black.)

Here is the naked Big Beam:

Photograph exposed using only the 20 mW of He-Ne 633 nm! (Laser bought from 142laser courtesy this Forum.)

Very important, keeping the air drafts down! And the heat from the laser requires its own sub-baffling.

Use your hard-earned dough to buy a spatial filter! (I think HoloWizard on this forum had some for sale in the For Sale section.) You can make your own beamsplitters in a Holographic Optical Element way. The concrete blocks are on the X-pieces that contact the inner tubes for ballast and work space.

Wood may not be the ultimate in dimensional stability, but it changes only when the environment changes, with respect to temperature or humidity. The original one, built in 1982, (for a picture of it in its original incarnation, see"How To Make Holograms, Don McNair, Tab Books, 1983, ISBN 0-836-0109-0) still gets use, pictures taken above in 2008, and performs well, as it was originally a nominal 4” by 6” flooring beam, almost 8 feet long, then run through a planer to smooth it out, coated with polyurethane varnish, and finished with matte black paint.

You can put it away when done working, using bolts to assemble it, or transport it for demonstrations, mine lives in the rafters of my garage, as a fancy honeycomb table eventually fell into my lap.

[BobH]

I'd recommend trying a granite kitchen counter top on a cinder block table mounted on fork lift inner tubes for vibration isolation. The counter top may be cheap if it's surplus (for example, cut wrong) or just an ugly pattern. The table will be cheap and easily disassembled later. Gravity bases for everything on the table can be cheap to make out of old cans filled with concrete.

[Ed Wesly]

Duh! I have even shot SBR's directly on a concrete floor! That's the cheapest!

[joost]

@Joe Farina: Thanks for the advice. I am not entirely settled on hologram sizes just yet, I realize that it might be good to figure that out first before making _all_ the purchases. However, a breadboard means a lot less finicking with the setup and in the end allows me to make better holograms. Yep, its a 315 I purchased for a good price.

@ Ed Wesly: that big beam looks wicked ! I might just need to build such a thing one day.

@Bobh: Funny you mention counter top, I just happen to have a large piece of left over slab from our remodel. Even with a breadboard I will need weight and some damping system so that gives the slab a nice new purpose.

Thanks for the advice guys.